Angelo builds an overachieving team

Bears GM may miss on 1st-round picks, but he fills in gaps nicely

Jerry Angelo has a knack for filling gaps with the Bears. (Brian Cassella, Chicago Tribune)

Say what you want about Jerry Angelo's record finding marquee players in the first round of the NFL draft.

And say it quietly in case children are around. None of it will be good.

But if you need an NFL general manager to help fill spots 10 through 45 on your game-day roster, Angelo is your guy.

There are teams with bigger, better stars than the Bears at the top of the depth chart and those with worse scrubs at the bottom. Unremarkably, a graph of the skill level on the Bears roster would be closer to a straight line than many of the teams on their schedule.

What's remarkable to me is how that approach has worked for the surprising 6-3 Bears.

In a season in which the league lacks any super teams, the Bears mirror that even distribution of talent with a bunch of largely nondescript contributors consistently playing close to their potential. The overall quality of that depth explains as much as anything why the Bears find themselves in first place in the NFC North heading into Week 11.

Sunday in the 27-13 victory over the Vikings, for example, 2009 fourth-round draft pick D.J. Moore picked off his team-leading fourth interception from a nickel-back role ideal for his ball instincts.

If there was a player the Bears drafted out of Vanderbilt expected to burst onto the scene this year, most figured it would be offensive lineman Chris Williams — not the cornerback I doubted was physical enough for that role. I guess D.J. is for Don't Judge.

Recognizing the hidden value of many Bears' midlevel players such as Moore doesn't absolve Angelo for neglecting offensive linemen for years in the draft or taking one No. 14 overall, Williams, who is developing slower than a bad novel. It merely acknowledges that for every Williams-like example of a disappointing big-ticket player, Angelo has produced two Matt Toeainas.

We tend to focus heavily on how high-profile misses can get a GM fired but spend less time analyzing how under-the-radar finds can help a team contend for the playoffs. Yet the guys who step up during injury or inconsistency without allowing a drop-off can determine whether teams weather the inevitable storms in a 16-game season as much as its stars.

At least Angelo no longer clings to the false credo of building the Bears primarily through the draft. The Bears are no more a draft-driven team than today's home run hitter is corn-fed. Of the Bears' 64 players under contract, 25 were drafted since Angelo took over in 2001, according to the team's weekly press release.

If I'm the Bears and Angelo is still my general manager in April, I'm sending him antiquing for the first three rounds of the draft so he's rested and ready for his money rounds.

Obsessing on Devin Hester or the run-pass ratio against the Vikings almost made it easy to overlook the Bears got major contributions offensively from two such Angelo finds: fifth-round picks Johnny Knox and Kellen Davis.

Knox caught a team-high five passes for 90 yards and Davis, the third tight end, got loose for a 19-yard TD catch. The thing about guys thrilled to make the roster is they tend to seize opportunities.

Take forgotten wide receiver Rashied Davis. Pressed into the rotation for a play on third-and-6 in the fourth quarter, Davis responded with a clutch 12-yard reception — his first since December. Davis' 32-yard kickoff return to the Vikings' 49 foiled the Vikings' attempt to squib kick, and his block helped spring Hester's 42-yard kickoff return. Meaningful plays, they were all.

Speaking of special teams, Corey Graham has carved out a niche in his fourth season as a Bear — a few more than many expected from the fifth-round pick from New Hampshire.

On defense, Bengals practice-squad refugee Toeaina, in his seventh straight start at tackle ahead of first-rounder Tommie Harris, plugged running lanes for Adrian Peterson. I wonder how many Bears fans can spell Toeaina's name without Googling it?

Outside linebacker Pisa Tinoisamoa, the Rams '09 discard easy to overlook playing next to Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs, flew around with familiar abandon.

And while most of the offseason free-agent buzz surrounded Julius Peppers, Chester Taylor and Brandon Manumaleuna, the second-best signing looks like the guy who arrived with little fanfare. Cornerback Tim Jennings beat out Zack Bowman after two games and since has made what might be the defensive play of the year with a fourth-quarter interception against the Bills. Against the Vikings, Jennings continued to play bigger than his size (5-foot-8) and reputation.

Don't forget the emergence of Henry Melton as an inside pass rusher on third downs. Or the slow, steady development at offensive tackle of seventh-round rookie J'Marcus Webb, whose rough experience in his five starts should pay off later. Or the creative idea of lining up 312-pound Marcus Harrison at defensive end against the Vikings. Technically, Harrison's wide body took up two gaps, so he lined up at end and tackle on the same play. But you get the point.

The Bears have a bevy of roster-fillers doing more than just fulfilling expectations. They are exceeding them for what has become one of the most overachieving teams in the league.